LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A retired FBI agent faces sentencing Monday for accepting at least $150,000 in bribes in exchange for providing confidential information to Armenian organized crime figures in Los Angeles.
Babak Broumand, 56, of Lafayette, California, was found guilty last year in Los Angeles of taking bribes and money laundering.
Broumand, an FBI special agent from January 1999 until shortly after search warrants were served on his home and businesses in 2018, was responsible for national security investigations and was assigned to the FBI Field Office in San Francisco.
According to evidence presented at his 11-day trial, from January 2015 to December 2018, Broumand accepted cash, checks, private jet flights, a Ducati motorcycle, hotel stays, escorts, meals, and other items of value from Edgar Sargsyan, an organized crime-linked Beverly Hills attorney who had paid someone else to take the bar exam in his name.
In return for bribes, Broumand conducted law enforcement database inquiries and used those inquiries to help Sargsyan and his associates avoid prosecution and law enforcement monitoring. Specifically, Broumand informed Sargsyan whether a particular person or entity was under criminal investigation.